Following the succes of last year – over 100 visitors on this first edition – SAS has decided to organize a second edition of the Luxembourg Analytics Summit. Organizations in Luxembourg are increasingly becoming aware of the huge importance’ of data and analytics, and SAS – leader in the analytics and big data software market – wants to help them discover the opportunities in this field.

SAS has been present in Luxembourg for over 15 years now. That is one of the reasons why this analytics solutions vendor has become the undisputed leader in the analytics market, believes Edwin Van Waes, Sales Director at SAS Luxembourg: “Last year, we have doubled the amount of first year fees, which is a reliable indicator for the business in the following years. And we are pretty confident that we can double this amount again this year.”

The customer portfolio is spread over various industries, banking obviously being one of them. But the portfolio also includes customers among the European institutions; universities and other industries. These universities are not only important customers, they also form an important part of SAS’ ecosystem in Luxembourg, remarks Edwin Van Waes: “We acknowledge that we are an important player in the BI, big data and analytics market, and therefore we feel it is our responsibility to try and help the academic world develop the necessary talent for this market to grow in Luxembourg. Such efforts demonstrate our commitment towards the Luxembourg market. And the latest sales results indicate that this commitment has been rewarded”, Edwin Van Waes concludes.

Toward data-driven decisions

The topic of big data, analytics and BI has become very ‘hot’ in Luxembourg, confirms Mickaël Abisror, Senior Sales Executive for SAS Luxembourg: “Although we are a leader in all domains of the analytics market, SAS has seen many interesting competitors enter this market. There are so many aspects to analytics that this can not be called a surprise: next to Business Intelligence (BI) and visualization, there are important areas such as data management, and interesting new applications such as customer intelligence, fraud detection, risk management and compliance. Meanwhile we are helping customers move toward an entirely new level of analytics, where people and machines can make better decisions because they are data-driven and therefore better informed.”

The emergence of many new players in the analytics market not only makes SAS proud that they still maintain the leadership position, it also makes them aware that you cannot act as if you are the only player in the market. Mickaël Abisror: “We have come to fully acknowledge the importance of open source in the analytics space. That is why, nowadays, we give our customers the choice: they can either select a full set of SAS solutions, or combine them with other proprietary or fully open source  solutions. That is one more way of helping the analytics market move forward: by enabling open source to integrate with our solutions, we make it more enterprise-ready and thus enrich the entire analytics landscape.”

Key to this new, open and innovative approach is SAS’ Viya architecture, which enables full integration of both local and cloud solutions to overcome any analytical challenge. Additionally, this architecture enables analytics for all types of users, ranging from the data scientist to any employee who can use data and insight to make better informed decision. “Viya is really a game-changer”, enthuses Mickaël Abisror: “with its adaptive, open and unified architecture, it really brings all types of analytics to the entire organization. Our customers already seem convinced as well: the first trial runs are taking place right now.” SAS has indeed decided to embrace open source instead of viewing it as a competitor. This approach seems to be the right one: SAS is  gaining market share in the analytics space, a rather rare achievement for a market leader in any market.

Luxembourg market

SAS’ local presence in Luxembourg is a very deliberate choice, inspired by the observation that the Luxembourg market is a very specific one. Next to the strong demand for solutions concerning financial and regulatory challenges such as GDPR and money laundering, Tommy Lehnert, Sales Account Manager at SAS Luxembourg, also notices some other particular aspects of the Luxembourg market: “Size does matter, also in Luxembourg. But a big company in Luxembourg would be no more than an SME in larger countries. This does not mean, however, that you should treat them as an SME: they still require a Tier 1 treatment, because their own needs and requirements are as important as any enterprise’s needs in any other country.”

An additional peculiarity of the Luxembourg market is the relatively small size of the country itself, which leads to different market conditions, adds Tommy Lehnert: “Everyone knows each other, and news travels fast within Luxembourg. This means that a failed project or some other form of mistake soon reaches every potential customer and partner in the country. So it is important that you treat every customer and every project with the highest possible care. Only the truly dedicated, quality-driven vendors and partners survive in such demanding environment.”

Last but not least, Luxembourg is increasingly aiming to be viewed as an ICT country, driven by ICT but also providing ICT services to companies in other countries, notes Tommy Lehnert: “We have moved from steel manufacturing to banking and other financial industries and are now ready to play a major role in providing ICT services, such as datacenter hosting. Big data and analytics expertise seems to be a logical extension of this service portfolio, so it is important for SAS to keep promoting analytics in every possible way. We are among the very few who can offer analytics as a built-in solution, integrated in business processes and industrialized for repeatable results.”

In order to promote the benefits of analytics throughout the country, SAS not only contributes to academic efforts but also takes other initiatives. “The Analytics Summit is one of the many examples of SAS constantly promoting analytics”, says Tommy Lehnert, “By combining internationally renowned analytics experts with customers sharing their own analytics experiences, attendees get a good impression of how analytics could benefit them and take their business to the next level.”

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Would you also like to attend this Analytics Summit on April 27 in the BGL BNP Paribas Offices , and find out more about data-related hot topics such as GDPR, machine learning and personalized medicine? Go ahead  here to get informed on everything analytics, to meet with your peers and to share ideas.

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